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Early last month, we outlined the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Libya, which was transformed into a lawless wasteland in the wake of NATO-backed efforts to topple Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

BENGHAZI, Libya — Representatives of Libya’s rival factions who are sitting in Tunis and negotiating through a U.N.-brokered process announced on Tuesday that they have formed a unity government aimed at stemming the chaos that has engulfed the country for the past years.
In a statement received by The Associated Press, the Unity Presidential Council said it has agreed on a 32-member Cabinet, drawn of representatives from across the country.
But whether that government will in fact be able to govern the country remains to be seen.

Clashes killed at least 31 people in Egypt's Port Said as violence raged into the early hours of Sunday in several cities including the capital following death sentences passed on 21 football fans after a riot.

CAIRO — An Egyptian court released a detailed ruling Sunday on why it sentenced Canadian Mohammed Fahmy and two other Al-Jazeera English journalists to three years in prison for airing what it described as “false news” and biased coverage, a case long criticized by press freedom advocates and others.
The ruling, published by the state news agency MENA, says the three men — Fahmy, Australian journalist Peter Greste and Egyptian producer Baher Mohammed — were by default members the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, which Egyptian authorities consider a terrorist organization.

Egypt's ruling military council remains committed to holding parliamentary elections in September, despite mounting calls for a delay, a military source told AFP on Monday."The military council insists on what it has already announced regarding (holding) elections at the end of September, in accordance with the result of a referendum" held in March, the source said.The military council was responding to statements by Vice President Yehia al-Gamal, who told a satellite channel on Sunday that the army had agreed to postpone the polls to December.

Judges voted on Monday to bar women from ruling in an influential court which advises Egypt's government, official media reported, in a move slammed by human rights activists.The Council of State's association voted by an overwhelming majority against appointing women as judges in the council, Egypt's MENA news agency said."Three-hundred and eighty judges took part in the general assembly and voted, with 334 rejecting the appointment of females to judicial posts and 42 agreeing, with four abstentions."